Following hot on the heels of our last game, Wyrm and I got another game in on our regular Tueday night after given some of the group couldn’t make it. Per the prior report, Wyrm ran the Mighty Avengers (Captain America, Black Widow, Ironman, Thor, Incredible Hulk and the team card) and I took my X-Men team (Cyclops, Colossus, Rogue, Wolverine, Jean Grey, Emma Frost with the Uncanny X-Men team card).

Set-up and Deployment

We rolled randomly for scenario, getting Big Combat, which saw Emma Frost and Hulk toe-to-toe in the centre. Terrain was similar to previous, although I had some new cars which we used, sizes as follows:

Size Two – Dumpsters and barrels

Size Three – Barricades

Size Four – Cars and forklift

Size Five – Ambulance and Fire Truck

Size Six – Shipping containers and small ruins

Size Seven – Big Ruins

I concentrated my force in the centre, assuming I’d need to execute a stacks-on strategy against Hulk, with Cyclops taking a vantage point on the shipping containers to rain down eye laser death on the Avengers.

Emma Frost uses Mastermind to switch one of Wyrm’s dice for mine, with the odds in my favour I’ll be able to get initiative round one and prevent Hulk laying waste to Emma…

Round One

… which, of course, was not to be. Wyrm wins the initiative, and Hulk activates making an overloaded Hulk Smash on Emma Frost, which also goes critical. He then grabs her and throws her backwards into the nearby small ruin, which pushes her into the red and she promptly loses consciousness. Hulk then moves backwards.

I attempt to activate Emma Frost, but fail the Stamina roll again, so she remains unconscious on the ground.

Thor is up next, and he flies over to a nearby dumpster, which he throws at Emma Frost, pushing more unavoidable damage onto her.

Now scrambling for a plan, I move Colossus forward to be within bodyguard range of Emma Frost to prevent her taking further hits.

Cap moves forward and makes a Shield Bounce attack (details) on Emma Frost, which he overloads for Ricochet, and Colossus bodyguards it, seeing it miss.

I activate Cyclops next, who creeps forward on top of the containers, and fires two overloaded Focussed Beam attacks (details) at at Hulk, with one critical and one missing.

Ironman flies forward and makes a Micro Missiles attack (Details) on Emma Frost, which Colossus again bodyguards, and ultimately misses.

Jean Grey flies forward and overloads a Psychic Illusions attack on Hulk which hits. I then follow it up with a second Psychic Illusions attack (which I’ve since realised is once-per-round, whoops), which also hits.

Black Widow moves forward and makes a Bullet Barrage attack (details) on Emma Frost, which Colossus bodyguards, and misses. She follows up with the same attack against Jean Grey, who I’ve placed slightly outside Colossus’ bodyguard range, but luckily she misses regardless.

Rogue flies forward just in front of Jean Grey, with Wolverine activating immediately after to move next to Rogue, positioning to execute a Fastball Special on Hulk next turn.

Forgot to take a photo here, so on to round two…

Round Two

I win initiative this turn and start by having Rogue throw Wolverine at Hulk, with Wolverine activating Fastball Special (details), which he overloads, but misses. Rogue then moves forward into contact with Cap and makes a Superstrike (details) however also misses.

Hulk throws the ruin he is cowering behind at Colossus and splits the damage across Colossus, Emma Frost and Jean Grey. This is sufficient to incapacitate Emma and neatly avoid me bodyguarding onto Colossus. On the upside, Colossus and Jean Grey both pass their Agility rolls and take no damage. He then makes an overloaded Hulk Smash attack on Wolverine and pushes him back into Cap.

Wolverine is starting to get angry at this point, and makes an overloaded grab on Cap, getting him and then throwing him straight into Hulk, before moving into contact with Hulk and Black Widow.

Thor activates and makes a For Midgard attack on Wolverine, overloaded for dice, which hits and pushes him into the pale. He then moves to a nearby car, which he picks up and throws at Jean Grey, splitting the damage across her and Rogue, who dodges.

Jean Grey moves slightly, then makes a Psychic Illusions attack on Hulk which hits, then follows up with a Psi-Blast attack (details) which misses (I’ll note here, I think this was a mistake in hindsight, and I should have used Cyclops to make an attack on Hulk with Cap knocked down – good lesson in ordering).

Cap gets up and moves out into the middle of the brawl, positioning to maximise Shield Block and leadership. He then makes a Shield Bounce attack on Rogue, which hits.

Colossus moves forward and throws a dumpster at Cap, who easily dodges.

Black Widow activates and makes an overloaded Mixed Techniques attack (details) on Wolverine which hits, makes a second Mixed Techniques attack which misses, then falls back.

Cyclops makes an Optic Devastation attack (details) on Hulk, which Cap Shield Blocks. I had intended to do the same again, but with Cap out of POW I take the opportunity and make a Massive Blast attack (details) on Hulk, which hits and pushes Hulk into the pale.

Ironman flies towards Rogue and overloads a Unibeam attack on her and Jean Grey, both of which hit. Rogue is pushed into the red zone, but manages to stay conscious.

KO rolls see Rogue stay awake, but Hulk succumbs and is knocked out.

Round Three

I win initiative and activate Colossus, who makes an overloaded Crushing Smite attack (details) on Cap (trying to draw out Shield Block to no avail), which scores a critical hit and pushes Cap 7” back.

Hulk wakes up (and I realise I potentially should have activated Wolverine first!), and also uses his Fury skill (details), seeing him gear up to 15 POW. He makes a Hulk Smash attack on Wolverine and misses. Then an overloaded Hulk Smash on Wolverine, which hits and goes critical, but Adamantium Skeleton prevents Wolverine from taking more than three physical damage from one attack luckily. He then makes another overloaded Hulk Smash on Wolverine and misses. He then makes a Hulk Thunderclap which hits Colossus and Wolverine and whilst both pass agility rolls, Wolverine is now in the red but manages to remains conscious. Lastly, he uses Super Jump to move away like the big, green coward he is.

Thor moves into contact with Jean Grey and overloads a grab on her, which hits, then throws her into a nearby dumpster. She ends up in the red zone but passes her stamina roll. He then makes an overloaded For Midgard attack on her, but misses luckily.

Wolverine makes two move actions, using Agile, getting into contact with Hulk, before making an overloaded Snikt attack (details) which hits.

Black Widow makes a Bullet Barrage attack on Jean Grey which is overloaded for +1 damage, it scores a critical hit which incapacitates her. She then shifts her attention to Wolverine and makes a second Bullet Barrage attack on him, missing. She then moves away.

Rogue moves into contact with Ironman and makes a grab and throw, tossing him into the stack of shipping containers Cyclops is standing on top of.

Ironman gets up, but is low on POW after defensive improvements and Rogue’s Power Thief skill going off. He then makes an overloaded Repulsor Blast attack (details) on Rogue which hits and incapacitates her.

Cyclops makes an overloaded Optic Devastation attack on Ironman which hits, and follows up with an overloaded Focussed Beam on Ironman which also hits.

Cap moves into contact with Wolverine, launching an overloaded Shield Strike attack, which scores a critical and incapacitates him. He then makes an overloaded Shield Bounce attack on Colossus, but fails to connect.

Round Four

I win initiative again and taking the high odds play, activate Cyclops. He makes an overloaded Optic Devestation attack on Ironman which goes critical and see Ironman incapacitated. He then makes an overloaded Focussed Beam attack on Thor (the only other target in range) but misses.

Thor moves into contact with Colossus and makes a For Asgard attack which misses followed by a second for Asgard attack which also misses.

Colossus moves slightly then makes a Titanic Slam attack (details), with Cap failing his Agility roll (even with a re-roll) and Thor comfortably passing. He then attempts to grab Thor but misses.

Black Widow makes an overloaded Bullet Barrage attack on Colossus which misses, with a second Bullet Barrage attack also missing.

Hulk wakes up, moves over to the nearby police car, which he tosses at Colossus, who fails his agility roll, taking damage and becoming knocked down.

Cap then makes an overloaded Shield Strike on Colossus, which somehow misses, an overloaded Meteor Kick which hits and scores a critical, then attempts to grab him, but fails.

Colossus is KO’d, just failing his stamina roll, and Hulk also slips back into unconsciousness.

Round Five

Wyrm wins initiative, with Thor making a For Asgard attack on Colossus, which hits and an overloaded For Midgard attack which also hits.

Colossus then wakes up, moves over to the Hulk and makes an overloaded Ossium Punch attack (details), which goes critical but is not enough to take the Hulk down.

Hulk wakes up a tthis point and makes an overloaded Gamme Strike attack (details) on Colossus, which incapacitates him.

I decide to offer my concession there, with only Cyclops left and no real way to rack up sufficient victory points to come back.

Conclusion

This scenario seems to massively favour whoever wins initiative. It felt bad seeing Emma Frost go down before doing anything, and felt like I was playing 10 levels down for the match. On the flip side, had I won initiative, I would have used Emma’s willpower abilities (Drain Psyche, Paralyze Mind, Astral Strike) to keep Hulk locked in place whilst I moved away and allowed the rest of my team to pile on him. This would have left me in a much stronger position for the game.

Also, ordering of activations is critical, and I think I made a few mistakes over the course of the game, especially activating Jean Grey instead of Cyclops early on in round two. Hopefully this will improve over time.

It’s interesting learning the X-Men and I’ve been enjoying them more than my street level team, as it feels like they have greater depth, with lots of options and significantly differing strengths and abilities across the team.

My next hobby goal for this game is to get my Guardians of the Galaxy team painted. I think they’ll have a further unique playstyle, and should give me another interesting challenge in terms of learning how they operate and how best to play them.

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I’ve been playing hobby games for over 20 years, getting in a mix of different miniature and board games. I enjoy all aspects of the hobby, especially generating a new anecdote from the pain of an epic dice fail. Read More…